Focus

I help managers to lead better and have the impact they really want to have

Companies and organizations across the world are facing unparalleled, ever more complex challenges that are extremely difficult to master because of incomplete information, contradictory requirements and constantly changing circumstances. The only way, in my experience, to address these challenges sustainably is through significantly better leadership, more robust relationships and higher levels of engagement within organizations and with their stakeholders.

Much like a giant dinner table conversation at their very essence organizations are complex and fluid interaction processes between people. Over time these countless interactions create behavioural patterns – a phenomenon we call organizational culture.

For managers to help nudge these patterns of behaviour towards making things sustainably better within and for organizations they need to have the passion, foresight, ability, discipline and resilience to initiate, facilitate and participate in constructive joint action within their organizations that makes something happen that otherwise would not have happened.

LEADING IS NOT A POSITION – IT IS AN ACTIVITY THAT HAPPENS BETWEEN PEOPLE

Services

There is nothing that needs to happen first to begin what one really wants to do.

I work with my clients in three distinct and interdependent areas of leadership and organization development.

Personal Leadership

I work as executive coach and sparring partner to CEOs, senior managers and/or their leadership teams to support them in dealing with difficult organizational change issues, improve the quality of their individual and/or collective leadership practices and increase their personal and/or collective impact.

Collective Leadership

I design and facilitate (often together with senior partners from my worldwide network) highly challenging and impactful leadership development interventions that enable diverse groups of executives and managers to increase their strategic clarity, their personal commitment and role modelling, their ability to engage others, finally, their readiness to handle their current and future business challenges confidently and skillfully.

Organizational Vitality

I design and facilitate (often together with senior partners from my worldwide network) powerful large-scale organizational change and culture development processes that help organizations to increase their degree of engagement, agility and innovation in order to achieve their desired business aspiration and organizational objectives.

"WE ARE WHAT WE REAPEATEDLY DO. EXCELLENCE, THEN, IS NOT AN ACT, BUT A HABIT.”

Aristotle

Approach

You have to be present to have the impact you want to have

When Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit“ he reminded us that what and how we are and what impact we have is only partly determined by what we think about ourselves, but largely by what we do… again, again and again. In a very real way behaviour beats intention for impact every single time. Subsequently, being mindful of ourselves, other people and the situations we find ourselves in is the core prerequisite for leading well, for having the impact we want to have, and for achieving a sense of wellbeing.

My consulting practice is based on four fundamental principles:

• BODY: We are always embodied and therefore we are always local.• PRESENCE: We are always only living in the present moment.• CHANGE:Who we are and what we do at any moment is much more fluid than we conventionally think. Therefore, who we could be and what we could do and achieve next is highly shapeable.• IMPACT: We always have an impact on others and the world around us and vice versa, but we have to be present to have the impact we want to have.

The essence of my consulting work is to support my clients in thinking clearer and deeper about themselves, others, their organizations and the world at large in order to develop more options for action. As part of this work my clients explore and understand their “shadow side", their unconscious drivers, beliefs, assumptions and emotional and behavioural patterns that get in the way of their ability to have the degree of presence, impact and wellbeing they would really like to have.

In the course of our work my clients deeply explore the five questions essential to leading well and to achieving high degrees of performance, impact and wellbeing.

1. Who am I now and who do I really want to be?2. What is my purpose and what makes me happy?3. What is the level of my aspiration?4. What can I do to keep my focus sharp and my energy strong? 5. What investment am I willing to make to fulfil my purpose and achieve my aspiration?

YOU HAVE TO FIND IT. NO ONE ELSE CAN FIND IT FOR YOU …

Bjoern Borg

About Me

Helping managers getting better at making things better.

I am an educator and sociologist. Since 1986 I have helped senior managers in global organizations from across a multitude of industries, both in the private and public sector, to improve the quality of leadership and engagement within their organizations. My clients say that I am relational, challenging, risk-taking, practice-focused and theory-based, international, and highly experienced and competent.

Prior to starting The Leadership Practice in early 2011, I was on the leadership team of the consulting unit at Ashridge Business School, Partner at Oliver Wyman responsible for the Executive Development practice in Europe, Managing Director of Insight Consulting, Corporate Director of Leadership & Organization Development at Zurich Insurance Group, Director of Management Development at Dow Chemical Europe, and Manager of Employee Development & Quality Performance at Dow Chemical UK & Eire.

I have taught mindfulness and leadership at Saïd Business School – University of Oxford, organization change on the Ashridge Masters in Organization Change, and leadership at Management Centre Europe, EFMD and IMD.

I hold a Master in Education from the University of Hamburg, a Master in Organizational Consulting from Ashridge Business School, and a Doctorate in Organizational Change from Middlesex University. I am trained in Systemic Consulting and have professional diplomas in Body-centered Awareness from the Focusing Forum Zurich and in Executive Coaching from the Swiss Association for Person-centered Psychotherapy and Consulting. I have studied martial arts and meditation and have been using mindfulness techniques in organizational settings for many years.

I was born and grow up close to Hamburg, Germany and for 24 years I have lived in the US, the UK, Spain and Switzerland. Currently I live in Munich, Germany and when I am not working and travelling, I meditate, run, read, listen to music, watch movies, visit art museums and paint abstract paintings

„If you want to know who you are, you simply need to observe what you repeatedly do. Then ask yourself… is that really how I want to be?“

Hartmuth Stuelten

Clients

„ There is an authenticity about you that is so often lacking in other consultants. Whilst always firmly grounded you do not attempt to ‘over theorise’ with your clients but aim to cut through to the core of what needs to be addressed and avoid over complicating the matter in hand. You are the only consultant that I have heard my fellow Board members say they felt privileged to work with – praise indeed! „

Board Member

My clients are courageous managers determined to make a significant difference to themselves, others, their organizations and the world. In my line management and consulting practice, I have worked in almost all parts of the world in close to 100 different organizations from a wide range of industries both in the private and public sector such as …

RETAIL & CONSUMER

Nestlé
Sarah Lee
Coca-Cola

TECHNOLOGY

Siemens
Bombardier
Leica
Zeiss Medical
Oerlikon

TRADE

C. Illies & Co
Haniel
VWR

TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS

Hapag-Lloyd
Kühne & Nagel

„ Lasting and meaningful change … can only happen when people come together to boldly imagine what might be and find creative solutions …“

Richard Gere

Resources

“...a friend is someone (...) who can guide us when we’re lost and help us find the way...“

Stephen Batchelor

"This is a short video of me at the Mondi Leadership Forum. In it I explain my view of leading as a personal practice of creating movement amongst other people around something that is important to you and them.”

VIDEOS

“Here are a few articles I have written over the years. You're welcome to download any of them if you quote their source.”